I'm Irish by birth, living and working in the Turks & Caicos which has the US Dollar as its currency. As a result I have a tendency to watch the currency exchange US Dollar / Euro rates on Bloomberg while I sip my first cup of tea in the morning and lament the US dollar's extended decline - which isn't likely to change in the short-term. I have to return to the "auld sod" at some point this year to touch base with kith and kin and looking at the exchange rate I'm dreading it. Do you remember early in 2002 when the exchange rate was 1.165 or 0.70 to US$1.00? Its now 0.78 / 0.53 to US$1.00. Other currencies from the Bermudian Dollar to the Nicaraguan Cordoba have seen declines similar to the US Dollar against the Euro and Pound. While this will all surely put a damper on my shopping when I am back in Eire, it does create interesting possibilities for European investors looking to snap up a place in the sun as an investment, a second home or retirement pad, so I thought I would put quill to parchment, so to speak, and record my thoughts on the matter.

Which country?

The $64,000 question is where should you invest your Euros and Pounds if you want to get a place on this side of the Atlantic?

About 2 years ago a nice young American fellow I knew decided that starting a business in the Turks & Caicos would be too much of a hard slog. He sold his truck, packed up his belongings and fianc and moved to a family investment property in the jungles of Belize. It turns out that the property was a hut without indoor plumbing on an impressive stretch of land which I expect was bought for a song. He affectionately called it the "Love Cabana". Fair play to them, he and his prospective better half stuck it out bravely for about 6 months. But it was hard to keep the fires of love burning with monkeys jumping up and down on the roof all night long. Some sort of territorial instinct apparently drove the monkeys to pelt them with whatever came to hand whenever they ventured outside to bathe. To cut a long and somewhat earthy storey short the fianc left him in for the mod-cons of the Big Apple and he eventually followed suit, but Cupid's arrow was by then irretrievably lost in the back woods of Belize. If there's a point to this it's that you're often better off buying the best quality real estate product that you can afford rather than going the other route. You only live once as they say, so you might as well live as well as you can.

I have visited the Dominican Republic on various occasions, its just a short hop on a small plane. Construction costs are comparatively cheap and the craftsmanship and quality of materials are good so I have always kept an eye out for "the deal", but I was never moved to buy property there. When I wasn't dodging noisy mopeds I found myself trying, unsuccessfully, to evade street-hawkers who I have learned can spot an Irish lass at 600 yards and cut off all escape routes with impressive efficiency - "No, no hablo Espanol... no I don't want to buy a Haitian painting ... here, have a few pesos and leave me alone" (for the record the last bit is a bad move). I personally have misgivings about buying real estate where I can't read and understand the terms of the contract for myself, which rules the Gulf Coast of Central America in one fell swoop. I know I would fair better if I learned the language, but the prospect is daunting.

Bermuda has always appealed to me, at least its English speaking. Perhaps it's the fact that they get enough rainfall to make me feel homesick - although no self-respecting Irish lad would be caught dead in shorts and knee socks. In any event, I can't afford the price of a small damp cottage outside Hamilton or anything else that I would regard as possibly habitable with a bit of upside potential on a resale.

Cayman is similar in many respects to the Turks & Caicos but it has a tendency to be walloped unmercifully by passing hurricanes. I am told that when foreign developers first started buying up beachfront on Seven Mile beach it was something of a joke among local vendors who happily retreated, cash-in-hand, to higher ground. For whatever reason (and many have been cited) the Turks & Caicos seems to be spared the worst of the hurricanes that pass through the region. Long may that last. A friend of ours who moved from Grand Turk to Grand Cayman in 2000 to work with a company incorporation outfit managed to get a last minute flight out before Ivan hit and has not yet seen a reason to return. Another feature of Grand Cayman which I would have difficulties with is the bumper-to-bumper traffic which has to pass right through the downtown tourist area of Seven Mile Beach. I wish Cayman all the best and have no doubt that it will come back bigger and better than ever, but at the moment it's hard to get a clear sense of how the rebuilding process is going.

Dominica has (large) snakes which I can do without. I always thought St. Paddy must have been a great man altogether for taking it upon himself to drive them out of Ireland. I often wonder whether he was asked to do it by someone who felt like I do about snakes, or if he just saw the need to do the right thing and took the initiative. In any event, neither Dominica nor Puerto Rico have what I would regard as white sandy beaches, which is central to my concept of a Caribbean lifestyle, though I must confess that I'm more inclined to admire a nice beach from a safe and respectable distance than actually to walk it or lie on it.

Jamaica and the Bahamas have a bad rep for crime (but I gather from Jamaicans working here that its not as bad in Jamaica as it is made out to be - particularly for tourists who tend to be left out of the squabbles).

Leaving aside my obvious personal bias and my inclination to distance myself from serpents and gun-fire I firmly believe that from an investment perspective, real estate in the Turks & Caicos is a solid choice. It's cheaper than Bermuda, Cayman and BVI but it's developing as a very high-end tourist destination, which is the driving factor behind real estate price appreciation. There's an shared view among many with broader investment experience than me, that because the Turks & Caicos has a fresher product and better beaches than Cayman the "real estate" tables will likely turn in 5 to 10 years with the Turks & Caicos leading the island nations of the Caribbean Basin (and the North Atlantic) in terms of pricing.

What type of investment should you consider in the Turks & Caicos?

From an investor's perspective the first point worth noting is that undeveloped land prices here have been on an unmitigated tear for the past 5 years - so much so that investors have increasingly (and quite rightly) been looking at other areas of the local real estate market for the next investment opportunities. First it was beachfront on North Caicos, which is getting its own port and has a number of developments on stream. More recently interest has extended to Middle Caicos with the possibility of a fly-over bridge linking it to North. Commercial land on Providenciales has also had a good run with second tier undeveloped properties in the Grace Bay area now fetching prices equivalent to beachfront prices 5 years ago. After 10 years in the doldrums Grand Turk real estate began an impressive gallop of its own as a result of the new Carnival Cruise Port development.

So the second question - the Sixty Four Thousand and One Dollar question - is what makes the most sense for a prospective European real estate investor looking at the Turks & Caicos in 2006? There's no sure-fire answer but one possibility which is right under everyone's nose and which I find increasingly interesting is the condo market right in the center of Grace Bay beach, where it all began. After all, while condos have proven to be solid investments over the past five years they haven't doubled or tripled in price (yet) unlike undeveloped oceanfront land in certain areas, so the best investment returns may not have been seen yet.

Condos are also a comparatively hassle-free way for non-resident investors to own developed real estate in the islands. You don't have to line up tradesmen to help you with plumbing, electrical and other routine emergencies that crop up in any privately owned building and unlike a hut in the jungles of Belize you can invite family and friends to visit your condo on the beach and be assured that they will enjoy a fair degree of pampering with a blessed absence of angry monkeys.

You may ask why I single out Grace Bay when it's already the heart of the tourism industry here with prices comparably higher than elsewhere in the islands. My answer to that is that Grace Bay beach will logically continue to be the prime location in the Turks & Caicos and will therefore continue to command a price premium going forward. And right now, it's the place to be. In Cayman, which is 10 years ahead of us in development terms, Seven Mile beach real estate continues to be a leader in price appreciation. I am confident (if not certain) that condos on Grace Bay will continue to outperform the rest of the condo market here. You can buy a beachfront condo elsewhere for a little bit less but it is not the same thing.

That factor coupled with steadily increasing demand indicate that current condo pricing on Grace Bay beach is built on a solid foundation and is a relatively safe bet for price appreciation going forward.

Existing Beachfront Condos on Grace Bay beach

If you visited the islands in early 2002 and converted Euros to US$ in order to purchase a US$1 million condominium in a development on Grace Bay beach it would have cost you 1,165,000. That is 385,000 more than you would pay today if you could find the same unit at the same price today (which you can't). However, if you cross reference pricing on Grace Bay beachfront condominiums listed in 2002 with pricing on currently available units it's still possible to identify some condominiums listed in high-end resorts and residential condo developments where a purchaser buying with Euros today is actually paying less than he would have 4 years ago.

Is preconstruction still the way to go?

The answer to this is a definite maybe. Investment returns on preconstruction condominiums in the Turks & Caicos have historically proven to be better investments than existing condos which may well continue but developers have raised preconstruction pricing significantly over the past 3 years - from around the $400 per square foot to upwards of US$800 per square foot on higher floors of some of the ultra-luxury offerings. Bear in mind that the trend has been for each successive development to be more lavish than the last which accounts for some of that increase. Nevertheless, if investment is the primary objective you need to look closely at comparable pricing to ensure that you are not paying over the odds for what you get.

So, name a strong preconstruction option offered at a discount

The Seven Stars Resort is the possibly the best current example. It's the 800lb gorilla of the Providenciales development scene with a financially strong developer and advertising everywhere you turn. The completed development will be the largest luxury resort on Grace Bay beach comprising seven 7 storey buildings built in three phases on a sprawling site with full resort amenities. The development is located in the most developed area of Grace Bay (on what was formerly the Allegro hotel site) directly in front of the T-junction of Grace Bay Road and Dolphin Avenue which connects Grace Bay to Provo's main road (the Leeward Highway). You have restaurants, cafes, bars and quality shopping all just steps away. The Seven Stars the first thing that you see when you drive into Grace Bay and will quite literally be the gateway to the area setting the tone for everything around it. It is a simple geographical fact that the Seven Stars' advantageous location and scale can't be duplicated or equaled.

The first phase of the Seven Stars, comprising of 3 buildings named Alhena, Maia, and Alya respectively, is well underway, with Alhena and Maia now up to ring beam level. From an investor's point of view resales in this phase are "far and away" the best option at the moment and there are a few available. A resale listing currently on our books in the first phase is set out below with pricing comparisons to the 2nd phase currently available through the developer (note: floorplans for the second phase are different so I have focused on price per square foot and floor levels to draw a clearer picture):

Alya C-100 | 1st floor | 3bd/3.5bth - 3,372 sq. ft. Listed Price: US$1,65 mil. (or $489 per square foot). The point to note in relation to ground floor units in the Seven Stars is that because there is underground parking these units are actually elevated about 10 feet from ground level giving a surprising degree of separation and privacy.

Equivalent 1st floor pricing in 2nd phase west side of Meissa Building is US$603.62 per square foot which would equate to US$2,035,406 for a unit this size. That means savings of an incredible $385,406 over comparable unit pricing in the second phase on a per square foot basis making this condo the single best investment prospect in the development on a per square foot basis.

I have a number of ideas at any given time - but none at this particular moment which are quite as straightforward and delightfully up-market as an investor simply finding a comparative deal on a luxury condo "slap-bang" in the middle of Grace Bay beach and paying for it with Euros or British Pounds.